The redhead selling tickets had a lot to say. She preferred not to give her name but told me her salary was about $54,000 as an administrative assistant. She knew that she would need both Social Security and Medicare. She is fifty-five and suffers from chronic migraines that sometimes interfere with her work. She said her doctor had recommended that she retire and go on Social Security disability, but the amount she would get—about $1700 a month—wouldn’t be enough to whittle down her credit card debt, pay her mortgage, repay loans against her 401(k) plan, and help with her daughter’s college tuition. She is a single mom with no child support. Her eyes filled with tears as she talked about her financial plight and the pain from her headaches. She brightened though, when I asked about the Phillies. “I am a big Phillies fan. Huge. Phillies and Eagles big time,” she said.
She had mixed emotions about raising the age for collecting Social Security benefits, noting that people are staying in jobs longer, but that doesn’t free up jobs for younger people who need them. “People stay because they have to,” she said. “I would go out at sixty-two if I had the income. It’s getting more and more difficult to work.”
The day before we met, she had left work at one o’clock because a migraine was getting the best of her. “Who wants to raise the retirement age?” she asked rhetorically. “The old guys who have money and don’t care and want to stay in office longer. Would somebody tell me what happened to people fall off employment and don’t have jobs. Things didn’t improve. They just stopped counting them. Tell the politicians to stop lying to me.”
The woman had strong opinions about Medicare privatization, too. She had heard of Paul Ryan’s plan, but didn’t know all the details. “It limits options for someone if they don’t have money to buy what they want,” she explained. She talked some about the health insurance she has now, which is provided by the bank. She explained that when Wachovia bank became Wells Fargo, employees had to pay more for their coverage. In the last five years, she has been hospitalized three times for her severe headaches and feels the pinch of higher copays and deductibles. Health insurance is a big reason why she says she will remain in the workforce. She knows she can’t swing it on her own.
For more from Trudy Lieberman on Social Security and entitlement reform, click here.
I fully aggre with everything you have said. I worked wit a company for aqbout 9 years that had a retirement benfit and after the owner died the company was sold and then resold and the second company went bankrupt and the courts let our pension go to the credit holders so I lost what was promissed and now I am trying to get by on Social Secirety. After doctors visits and prescripitons copay and cost of living and may have to compleaty park my car and it is 70 miles roundtrip for doctor I don;t know how will be able to make it
#1 Posted by Joe Beverly, CJR on Tue 26 Apr 2011 at 09:01 PM
Quick note, this:
"He was a factory worker and died four years at age ninety-three"
needs an 'ago' somewheres.
Other than that, good survey of what people are thinking based on what they're watching on the tv news.
#2 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Tue 26 Apr 2011 at 09:08 PM
This article points out that very little has been said about how the Ryan plan would work. Some very big questions are left unanswered, and uncovered by the media. For example, given that the Republican party wants to turn edlerly healthcare over to private insurance, what provisions in the plan will guarantee (or even encourage) private insurers to sell health insurance to elderly sick people? The lack of affordable coverage for the elderly was one of the main motivators for Medicare in the first place. Do the Republicans propose some sort of mandate? Will private insurers be required under law to provide policies to elderly sick people? If so, will there be premium caps? It's hard to imagine that there would be mandates, given how bitterly the Republicans have complained about them in Obama's Affordable Care Act. If there are no mandates, then what is to become of the elderly who cannot obtain insurance?
From my perspective, these are all CRITICAL questions that have not been addressed anywhere in the media.
#3 Posted by Rick Sullivan, CJR on Wed 27 Apr 2011 at 06:28 AM